Johnson et al. (1993)

Source monitoring.

Psychological Bulletin, 114(1), 3-28

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DOI

Abstract

A framework for understanding source monitoring and relevant empirical evidence is described, and several related phenomena are discussed: old–new recognition, indirect tests, eyewitness testimony, misattributed familiarity, cryptomnesia, and incorporation of fiction into fact. Disruptions in source monitoring (e.g., from confabulation, amnesia, and aging) and the brain regions that are involved are also considered, and source monitoring within a general memory architecture is discussed. It is argued that source monitoring is based on qualities of experience resulting from combinations of perceptual and reflective processes, usually requires relatively differentiated phenomenal experience, and involves attributions varying in deliberateness. These judgments evaluate information according to flexible criteria and are subject to error and disruption. Furthermore, diencephalic and temporal regions may play different roles in source monitoring than do frontal regions of the brain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)

Reference

Johnson, M. K., Hashtroudi, S., & Lindsay, D. S. (1993). Source monitoring. Psychological bulletin, 114(1), 3.

What Rests on This

2 mechanisms cite this source. Each finding below is quoted as it appears on that mechanism's own page.

Source Monitoring Metacognition

Definition

Source monitoring is the set of processes by which people judge where a memory came from, such as who said something, where it was read, or whether it was seen or only thought about; the source is not stored as a label but inferred at retrieval from the memory's perceptual, contextual and cognitive-operation details, using flexible decision criteria that can err

Reality Monitoring Metacognition

Definition

In the wider source monitoring framework, reality monitoring (internal versus external origin) is distinguished from external source monitoring (which of two outside sources, such as two speakers) and internal source monitoring (which of two of one's own acts, such as said versus thought)